What southeast surge means for state

BRISBANE'S population is growing by almost 1000 residents a week, as the drought and a search for jobs drives people in from the regions.

Queensland's population has historically been decentralised, with Brisbane's share of the total smaller than the rest of the state.

But new Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals a major social shift, with the capital catching up.

The state's population grew by 840,000 in 10 years - nearly 452,000 of it in Greater Brisbane.

The average Queenslander is nudging middle age at 37.

The drift of younger people to the city for work and education means Greater Brisbane is also younger at 35 compared with the rest of the state Q where it is 39.

McCrindle social researcher Geoff Brailey said the trend would have a major impact on infrastructure and how cities like Brisbane cope with growth.

Sydney and Melbourne accounted for 10 million of the national population of 25 million, and they were attracting the majority of overseas migration where as Queensland was leading the rankings for interstate migration.

In the year to June 2017, the number of people living in Greater Brisbane swelled by 48,000 to reach 2.4 million.

The fastest growth over the year in the southeast region was at Pimpama on the Gold Coast, which was up by nearly 31 per cent.

The mining town of Collinsville in the Bowen Basin shrank by 5 per cent.

Economist Nick Behrens said the pattern showed how powerful the lure of a good job was.

"You can see the population flowing away from the regions to the coast,'' he said.

The suburb with Brisbane's youngest population was St Lucia, based on the University of Queensland.

The oldest population in Queensland was Bribie Island, where the median age was 59.

Wacol had the state's highest ratio of males to females because of the prison.

Coming in second was the Tablelands region, based around Atherton, where there are 151 males to 100 females.